This is a LINK to articles since April 21, 2001 about Cuba and the communist threat - CHILDREN'S CODE At this LINK is a LINK to many Elian articles. Below I will post similar articles since the FR format changed and locked posts to this LINK. Please add what you wish to this thread.

Eyes Wide Open--[Excerpts] The Los Angeles kids, chosen for their photographic skills and their ability to work with others, represented the Venice Arts Mecca, a nonprofit organization that brings volunteer artists together with youngsters from low-income families to nurture their creativity in areas ranging from literary arts to photography. They looked. They listened. They photographed. And they took notes for their journals.

.Before embarking on their adventure, the kids--who were joined by two young people from Washington, D.C., and accompanied by adult mentors--studied the sociopolitical history of South Africa, including apartheid. All were Latino or African American or a mix of the two, and were encouraged to think about their own identity, their own experiences with racism.

..Before embarking on their adventure, the kids--who were joined by two young people from Washington, D.C., and accompanied by adult mentors--studied the sociopolitical history of South Africa, including apartheid. All were Latino or African American or a mix of the two, and were encouraged to think about their own identity, their own experiences with racism.

..At the conference exhibit hall, the L.A. kids mounted a photo exhibition showing the underbelly of America. There were bleak images of life on an Indian reservation, of the homeless in Los Angeles. It was an eye-opener to some South Africans, who thought everyone in America was rich. "They were absolutely shocked," said Lynn Warshafsky, executive director of Venice Arts Mecca.

In turn, the L.A. group was surprised at the degree of anti-American sentiment, something they had to process. "They had to ask themselves questions they'd never asked before" about how others see them, Warshafsky said.

..For Eamon, the highlight was hearing Fidel Castro speak. "I had thought of him as seriously evil. I realized he's not evil, he's doing what he thinks is best. He has this sort of demeanor about him. Whether you like him or not, you respect him. It opened my eyes." [End Excerpts]

Castro making enemies and losing friends [Full Text] Fidel Castro, who normally is as cunning as any fox that ever watched over a chicken coop, has managed to turn his island nation's best commercial trading partner into a hostile critic of his regime. The European Union, often little more than a Castro apologist, has decided to restrict high-level government visits and cut participation of its 15 member-states in Cuban cultural activities.

The EU is responding to Castro's recent sham trials and imprisonment of 75 Cuban dissidents and his ordered execution of three men who hijacked a ferry boat and tried to make it to freedom in the United States. This is quite a turnaround for the EU. Castro has been a master at winning the propaganda war since taking power in 1959, but his jailing of the dissidents and the executions of the hijackers shocked the civilized world. At the ripe old age of 76, Cuba's usually clever tyrant may be losing his famous touch. [End]

Cuba Trade Show Licenses Denied *** "As President Bush has said, 'without meaningful reform, trade with Cuba would do nothing more than line the pockets of Fidel Castro and his cronies,'" said Griffin.***

South America's new-style military coup***With the patriarchal blessing of Fidel Castro, the model of new militarism started with Hugo Chávez, the Venezuelan colonel who led a failed coup in 1992, served two years in prison, and returned to capture the presidency in 1998. Ecuador's President Lucio Gutierrez - an Army colonel who led a successful indigenous rebellion in 2000, was jailed briefly, and was elected president last November - has consolidated the trend that, without a doubt, will spread.

................. This neomilitarism is characterized by a profound hostility to democratic society and to an open economy. It also seems to have a pronounced populist accent and a dangerous dose of communist infiltration. In essence, it represents the popular dissatisfaction with democratic policy in Latin America.

The paradox is that this doesn't seem to worry the United States. Of course, that's historically typical - more so now, because after Sept. 11, American foreign policy seems to be based exclusively on national security criteria. If in the past, Washington was not bothered by Somoza, Trujillo, and Duvalier, why should it be bothered now by Chávez, Gutierrez, or whoever else might come along?***

Caribbean leaders ignore Cuba's abuses*** One blunt-speaking moderator, Leslie Pierre, told me that he opposes the U.S. embargo. But as the editor and publisher of The Grenadian Voice, Pierre has called on Caribbean leaders to condemn Cuba's abuses -- to no avail.

In Pierre's view, Caribbean leaders who fail to condemn evil in their own neighborhood become ''collaborators, in effect,'' with Castro.

''When Castro can do a thing like that and not have anybody come down on him, he can be encouraged to even greater excesses,'' Pierre said. ``We must tell our friends when they are good and we must tell them when they are wrong.''

''Sometimes, there's a respect for Cuba in this part of the world because it stands up against the United States,'' Joel Simon, the acting director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, told me. ``But that's no excuse.''

Days before the UNESCO-sponsored conference, members of the United Nations voted Cuba back onto its human-rights committee, giving a perverse legitimacy to the region's hypocrisy on Cuba. The failure to condemn Castro ultimately reflects an unhealthy characteristic in many developing countries: political leaders and well-connected ''elites'' who define themselves not by what they support -- but by what they oppose.

In Jamaica, many university-educated elites promote a 1970s leftist worldview and pontificate endlessly about the evils supposedly perpetrated by U.S. foreign policy. Yet they often seem loath to discuss the grim day-to-day realities of ordinary Jamaicans: an unacceptably high level of extra-judicial police killings, rampant crime and a lack of decent jobs and public services.

After the Sept. 11 terror attacks, President Bush took the moral high road, declaring that the world's leaders must decide whether they are with the terrorists or against them, and not equivocate on the issue.

Caribbean leaders and intellectuals would do well to consider that advice -- for the sake of Raúl Rivero and other pro-democracy activists and journalists rotting in Cuba's jails. ***

"Castro is a murder." Tearful relatives of Cuban dissidents call for sanctions against Castro*** MIAMI (AFP) - Tearful relatives of jailed Cuban dissidents issued an emotional plea for tough sanctions against President Fidel Castro's communist government and said they were heading to Europe to press their case. Larry Klayman, the head of Judicial Watch, the conservative legal watchdog group organizing the trip, called outright for the US military to oust Castro, saying the Cuban leader was "more of a threat than Saddam Hussein." Klayman and the exiled Cubans spoke at a news conference in Miami to outline details of a nine-country tour next week aimed at pressing European countries to impose economic sanctions against Cuba.

"No dictatorship can exist without external support but no dictatorship can be brought down either without external support," said Alina Fernandez, an exiled daughter of Castro, who will lead the trip. "We are asking the world to help us with the situation in Cuba," said Blanca Gonzalez, whose journalist son, Normando Gonzalez, was recently sentenced to 25 years in a Cuban prison. Tears streaming down her cheeks another dissident's relative said she would tell European leaders that "Fidel Castro is a murderer." "Until now, they have been blind and deaf to the tragedy in Cuba," said Isabel Roque, her voice choked with emotion.

Klayman also called for the ouster of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. "Chavez is a terrorist, removing him in any particular way would probably be beneficial," he said. ***

Castro responded with a ferocious outburst, calling the EU leadership ''fascists'' and ''bandits'' and saying that Europe's duty ''is to keep its mouth shut because the dumb cannot speak,'' according to the June 13 English edition of Granma, the Communist Party daily.

A senior State Department official said that while the department has reached no firm conclusions to explain Castro's behavior, the U.S. focus now is on how the global community should respond.

`COMMON OBJECTIVE'

''We already share a common objective -- Cuba's democratic transition,'' the official said. ''What we want to pursue now, is a compatibility'' of policies and tactics. Among the issues that American and European officials will examine at a ministerial-level summit this week, he added, are ways that respective Cuba policies can ``complement each other in a more direct way.

''We have been very encouraged by [the EU's] statements,'' said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. ``We would hope that there would be not just strong words, but action.''

Ramón Colás, a former political prisoner who lives in Miami, said Castro's verbal attacks on Europe were designed to create an atmosphere of crisis within the island that would rally Cubans to support his 44-year-old revolution. ''He creates a crisis when one doesn't exist because it is during conflict that Castro is at his strongest,'' Colás said in a telephone interview. ``All this is for internal consumption. He is depicting himself as a victim.''

But even if Castro's succeeds in portraying the EU as his enemy, he will still face the widespread discontent among Cubans fueled by a tumbling economy that is pushing already difficult lives to the brink of the unbearable. ***

Cuba's Communist Party replaces its head of ideology [Full Text] HAVANA - Esteban Lazo, the head of Cuba's powerful Communist Party in the nation's capital, has replaced one of the party's founders in a key national post overseeing ideology, the daily newspaper Granma reported Tuesday. Lazo, 59, replaces José Ramón Balaguer, 71, a fellow member of the party's governing politburo, as head of the ideological department dedicated to preserving and promoting support for the government's communist principles. Granma, the voice of the Communist Party of Cuba, said the changes were made during a meeting overseen by Fidel Castro, who heads the party as first secretary.

Both men are seen as orthodox party leaders intensely loyal to Castro. A former Cuban ambassador to the Soviet Union, Balaguer in particular has long wielded much influence inside the party, which is technically separate from the government but populated by the same players. Balaguer and Lazo also serve inside Cuba's government on the nation's supreme governing body, the Council of State that Castro heads as president. Lazo is also a first vice president on that council.

As the party's first secretary for Havana for nearly a decade, Lazo has been heavily involved in the government's ''battle of ideas,'' an ongoing ideological campaign launched during the international custody battle over the boy Elián González, who returned to his family in Cuba in June 2000. The ongoing ideological campaign seeks to engage Cubans, particularly younger ones, in national politics and generate support for Castro and his policies.

It was not immediately clear what the move meant, but it follows by days the replacements last week of two Cabinet members -- the ministers of finance and transportation -- with younger people. Balaguer, who served in the rebel army that fought during the revolution that brought Castro to power in January 1959, represents a slightly older generation of leaders, known as ''históricos'' for their role in Cuba's revolutionary history. Lazo, although just 12 years younger, joined the party as a young man just four years after Castro formed his revolutionary government. One of the most visible black leaders in Cuba's power structure, Lazo has spent most of his adult years as a labor leader and as a regional party leader. [End]

At least we can agree to disagree about Cuba [Full Text]By all accounts, the Great Cuban Trade debate staged Tuesday morning lived up to its billing. Cuban-American attorney and Castro opponent Ralph Fernandez and Albert A. Fox Jr., the man who helped arrange Mayor Dick Greco's controversial trip to Cuba, squared off for the first time ever. Both brought tons of supporting information to the Trenam Kemker Regional Leadership event, but most of all they brought passion. Unfortunately, I had another obligation, but most of the 300-plus people in attendance were still buzzing about the conflicting opinions long after the morning event.

Passions were expected to run high, and Fernandez and Fox did not disappoint. Trenam Kemker attorney Rob Stern said it was the most informative and emotional discussion he had seen during the six years the firm had sponsored the breakfast gatherings.

So who scored the most points?

When I reached Fernandez on Tuesday afternoon, he was convinced he won over the undecided people in the audience. And Fox said that by contradicting Fernandez, he succeeded in prompting people to do their own research and draw their own conclusions. After talking to both men, it's clear they don't agree on much of anything. One of the biggest issues is Fernandez's insistence that Castro has supported terrorism. Fox told me that was propaganda. Fernandez, who also noted European countries are planning to boycott Castro because of his recent persecution of dissidents, said there is overwhelming evidence to support his claim.

Fox also spoke of humanitarian efforts being made by those who travel to Cuba, and said more could be done if travel restrictions were lifted. "You could have a mother in Cuba dying of cancer and not be able to send her $10,000," said Fox, president of the Washington-based Alliance For Reasonable Cuba Policy. "But you can send your favorite Iraqi cousin as much money as you want."

Fernandez said such humanitarian talk is just a cover for carpetbaggers hoping to take economic advantage of a good relationship with Castro. "Don't be misled by these "I-found-it humanitarians' who take an old wheelchair to Cuba in a million-dollar yacht and then party for 10 days at Marina Hemingway with 15-year-old Cuban girls," Fernandez said.

Clearly, the best result of this healthy debate is awareness of the issue, and I'm glad we could have it in Tampa. They tell me you couldn't have this debate in Miami. [End]

A Library in Cuba: What Is It? - ALA: What Ideology Do They Promote - Suppress?*** President Fidel Castro has said that no books are banned but that Cuban libraries lack the money to carry every available title. A 2001 American Library Association report on Cuba said, "Considering the small readership of the private collections and the lack of trained librarians, if the U.S. government wishes to get information into the hands of the Cuban people, the most effective way is to deliver books directly to the extensive and active public library system."

"By the same token," the report continued, "if the Cuban government wishes to make information available without censorship, it will allow the independent collections to operate without interference."

Mark Rosenzweig, the director of the Reference Center for Marxist Studies, a research center in New York City, contends that Cuba has one of the finest library systems in the developing world and that no books are officially banned by the government.

He said he believed that the independent librarians had no connection to professional librarians and were supported by American anti-Castro groups. "These are a ragtag bunch of people who have been involved on the fringes of the dissident movement," Mr. Rosenzweig said of the independent librarians.

Mr. Freedman, the former library association president, said some association members had even accused the independent librarians of being "paid agents of the U.S. government."

Mr. Kent acknowledged that some of his 10 trips to Cuba were paid for by Freedom House, a human rights group, and the Center for a Free Cuba, an anti-Castro organization, which have received grants from the United States Agency for International Development. And the co-founder of the Friends group, Jorge Sanguinetty, is a Cuban exile and economic consultant whose main client is the aid agency. But those government ties, Mr. Sanguinetty said, do not change the reality of government-confiscated materials and the harassment of librarians and their families. ***

Press group tells tourists about repression in Cuba [Full Text] PARIS - (EFE) -- The international press watchdog group Reporters Without Borders on Monday began distributing postcards at the French capital's largest airport that contained the slogan, ``Welcome to Cuba, the world's largest prison for journalists.''

The postcards, distributed at the Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport by the Paris-based group are part of a campaign to raise tourists' awareness of repression in Cuba.

The cards were given only to people traveling to Cuba on Cubana de Aviación, the Cuban airline.

''This is not a call to boycott flights to Cuba, but just [a way of letting] those who go to that country know that behind its sun and beaches there is a totalitarian regime that represses and impedes freedom of the press,'' Reporters Without Borders Secretary General Robert Menard said.

The cards feature Argentine-Cuban guerrilla Che Guevara's face superimposed on an anonymous police officer, who in a famous image from France's May 1968 protests held a shield in one hand while brandishing a club in the other.

``Did you choose Cuba for its friendly people, its lovely beaches, its rum and its seductive rhythms? Know where you're heading. Behind its cliches, the sun doesn't shine for everyone.

' `Che' is no more than an icon used by the authorities to legitimize their repression,'' the back of the postcard reads. [End]

Seventy-four Cuban literacy experts were to train 100,000 Venezuelan teachers to give classes in reading and writing to 1.5 million Venezuelans -- nearly 9 percent of the population -- who are currently illiterate.

The Cuban participation is opposed by foes of leftist Chavez. They accuse him of ruling like a dictator and trying to replicate Communist-ruled Cuba in Venezuela, the world's No. 5 oil exporter.

In a video conference broadcast from Caracas to schools around the country, the Venezuelan leader praised the literacy program as a major advance in his so-called "revolution" to improve the lives of the country's poor.

"This has nothing to do with indoctrination," he said, dismissing allegations by opponents that the campaign would seek to impart Marxist ideology along with reading and writing skills.

The campaign, providing two hours of classes a day at teaching centers around the country, will be headed by Eliecer Otaiza, a Chavez loyalist and former chief of Venezuela's DISIP security police.

Chavez thanked his friend and political ally, Cuban President Fidel Castro for donating texts, videos and 50,000 television sets to help the Venezuelan literacy drive. The Venezuelan leader briefly visited Havana during the weekend for talks with Castro.

In a growing alliance that has irked the United States, the biggest buyer of Venezuelan oil, several hundred Cuban doctors, sports trainers and farming experts have been working in Venezuela under a bilateral cooperation treaty.

Venezuela also supplies up to 53,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil to Cuba on preferential terms, making the South American nation the Caribbean island's single biggest trading partner.

Chavez, who was first elected in 1998 and survived a coup last year, frequently praises Castro and Cuba but denies that he shares the Cuban leader's Communist convictions. [End]

China-Cuba/US-Taiwan tit-for-tat*** June 22, 2001 HAVANA - Military relations between Cuba and China that allegedly extend to arms sales to this Caribbean island nation as well as joint intelligence activity has heightened tension between the two socialist nations and the United States.

Reports refuted by Beijing and Havana have appeared in the US media since Chinese President Jiang Zemin's visit to Cuba in April. "For over 30 years, Cuba has not imported any weapon from China," Cuban President Fidel Castro said on Tuesday night on a special program broadcast by Cuba's state-monopolized TV. Sun Yuxi, spokesman for China's ministry of Foreign Relations, had already stated that reports claiming his country was selling arms to Cuba were totally unfounded.

Citing a US intelligence report, the Washington Times reported on June 12 that at least three boats carrying explosives and other weapons had been traced from China to the Cuban port of Mariel in the past few months. According to the newspaper, China was taking advantage of Cuba's proximity to the United States to carry out electronic espionage to intercept US communications.

The government of President George W Bush is "very much concerned with this PLA [People's Liberation Army] cooperation [with Cuba] and movement of military equipment into Cuba", James Kelly, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said at a subcommittee hearing in the US House of Representatives.***

Venezuelan Opposition Fears 'Cubanization'***The poor barrios of Caracas are the scene of a new pilot program aimed at improving health care for the poor. Cubans described as "volunteers" have moved into private homes, where they offer free consultations and medication, often in open competition with clinics run by the metropolitan authorities.

Alfredo Pena, mayor of metropolitan Caracas, is a fierce government opponent, who ironically depends for his financial resources on the central government. Caracas health officials say their budget has been cut by over 50 percent, with the result that their already over-burdened clinics are facing collapse. They suggest that this may be part of a plan to shift resources to the Cuban cooperation project.

Adding to the controversy are accusations that the Cubans are neither qualified to practice medicine nor familiar with modern pharmacology or treatment methods. There have been claims by Venezuelan doctors of serious malpractice that allegedly placed patients' lives in danger.

The Cuban personnel have not been required to validate their qualifications in Venezuela, and according to the president of the Venezuelan Medical Federation, Douglas Leon Natera, they are operating illegally.

President Chavez dedicated most of his regular Sunday radio and television show to denying these allegations. He added that the plan was to bring in a thousand Cuban doctors in all.***

Brazil and Cuba: More than Good Friends***But I was talking about Cuba. It was also in very bad taste at the time to say that somebody was an agent of the Cuban government. Or that Cuba supplied arms and training to Brazilian guerillas. Of course that was then. Right now, however-surprise!-we have a known agent of the Cuban security services, José Dirceu, who took office as the president's Chief of Staff, declaring loud and clear that the generation who came to power with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is in debt with Cuba. Dirceu also reminds us that the Brazilian Left, during the years of the military regime, could always count on Cuba-on its solidarity, its "friendly hand" and its "strong arm". "I consider myself a Cuban Brazilian and a Brazilian Cuban", he says.

To be more precise: the Chief of Staff of the Brazilian presidency admits, for the whole world to listen, that the ascension of the PT (Workers Party) to power is due to the good efforts of the oldest dictatorship in the continent. He forgot, of course-or purposefully declined to mention-that even before the military took power in Brazil, Cuba was already sending arms to our guerrillas. This is actually the touchstone of the PT. One should never admit that the intervention by Cuba happened before 1964 [year of the revolution in Brazil, when the military took power]. For the PT to admit such a fact would be to have its argument crumble to the ground-that the guerilla was a reaction to the military regime. In fact, however, what happened was the exact opposite.

Nothing like power to loosen the tongue of the people holding it. The timing is tragically significant, too, with the news of the 78 Cuban "dissidents" arrested last March, now convicted and facing prison terms ranging from ten years to life. Dissidents, of course, is the press's favorite euphemism to designate political opponents, human rights' militants, independent writers and journalists. (If you read newspapers, you must have noticed that dissidents exist only in socialist countries).

Diplomats and foreign journalists have tried to obtain permits to watch the proceedings in Havana, but they were denied access to the courts. This is the Cuba to which our PT owes its victory, according to our Cuba-Brazilian José Dirceu. The same Cuba who sends to prison any person opposed to the regime. In Europe and in the U.S. there is protest coming from both the press and human rights' organizations against the escalation of the dictatorship. In Brazil, however, there is a deep silence.***

o Argentina's Kirchner, who campaigned against U.S.-backed free-market policies -- and made a point of not meeting the U.S. ambassador to Argentina during the electoral race -- has said he will end his country's ''automatic alignment'' with the United States. Instead, Argentina's new government says, it will side with Brazil on major foreign policy decisions.

o In Brazil, da Silva took office Jan. 1 as head of a proudly leftist government. A union leader who until only a year ago advocated not paying Brazil's foreign debt and rolling back his predecessor's free-market reforms, da Silva said during the campaign that a U.S.-backed hemispheric free-trade plan amounts to the ''economic annexation'' of Latin America to the United States. He gave a red-carpet welcome to Chávez and Castro on his first day in office.

o In Ecuador, Lucio Gutiérrez took office Jan. 15 after winning an upset victory with the backing of his Patriotic Society Party and Pachakutik, a leftist political movement that represents the country's marginalized Indians. A former army officer who led a failed coup in January 2000, Gutiérrez vowed in his inauguration ceremony to take strong steps against ``the corrupt oligarchy that has robbed our money.''

o In Venezuela, Chávez has gradually radicalized his ''Bolivarian revolution'' since taking office in 1999. In his first year in office, he proclaimed that ''Venezuela . . . is heading in the same direction, toward the same sea to which the Cuban people are heading: a sea of happiness, of real social justice, of peace,'' and added that he would turn over the government ''in the year 2013.'' Most recently, he has blamed the ''oligarchy'' for trying to topple him, and said he intends to remain in power until 2021.

o In Chile, Socialist Party leader Ricardo Lagos took office in 2000 as his country's first leftist president since the end of the rightist dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet in 1990.

Czechs back Cuban exiles' goals*** Leaders of the Czech Republic will meet with Cuban exiles in Miami next weekend to explore ways of cooperating in seeking the release of political prisoners and bringing democratic reforms to Cuba.

Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla and Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda will meet with President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney in Washington on Monday, said Martin Palous, Czech ambassador to the United States.

They will fly to Miami on July 19 for a 24-hour visit that will include a cultural event at Bongos Cuban Café, breakfast with Czech consuls from around the country and a dinner at which the honorary consul in Miami, Alan Becker, will be promoted to honorary consul general.

But the talks with exile leaders -- whom Palous described as ''a limited number'' from a ''wide spectrum'' -- is a key purpose of the trip. A preliminary itinerary has the two ministers joining Cuban Americans on a short yacht cruise before meeting a group of former political prisoners on Fisher Island.

.''You have much more open criticism against Fidel Castro,'' Palous said. ``Finally, in Europe, we have prevailing opinion that there is no justification for that. Now is the time to internationalize a policy toward Cuba.''

Joe Garcia, executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation -- which will be represented at the meeting -- said the Czechs have the history and perspective to get the audience's attention.

''You don't have to explain what communism and totalitarianism are to these people. They lived it,'' Garcia said. ***

They are now jamming the uplink signal, here in the United States as well. The uplink signal is the signal from the broadcast studio to the satellite, which is then relayed to another satellite and finally broadcast over Iran. This started occurring a few days ago. I was told that the FCC now believes the jamming is coming from within Cuba.***

Historic arrival in Havana harbor - Cash on the barrel head ***Since the collapse of the Soviet block in 1991, however, Cuba has eagerly sought trade with the capitalist world while trying to maintain a communist system. Numerous ships have carried U.S. goods to Cuba since December 2001, when the U.S. government permitted cash-paid shipments of food and some other goods. Seventy-one percent of those were U.S.-owned, said Pedro Alvarez, leader of the Cuban government import company Alimport, which has signed contracts for about $480 million since the rules were eased.

But the Helen III was the first to carry cargo under a U.S. flag and with a U.S. crew. It was also the first vessel from Mobile, Ala., to carry cargo under the recent rules. Fabian said the barge carried 1,614 metric tons of newsprint and about six tons of timber.

As tugboats maneuvered the barge to the docks, Fabian stepped aside to make a phone call to check the company bank account. ''By law, the money has to be in our bank account before we can unload,'' Fabian said, referring to the U.S. regulations that set conditions on trade with Cuba. Fabian said the shipment, worth about $1.5 million, was part of a contract to ship a total of 10,000 tons, with another 5,000-ton deal in the works.***

Cuba, Iran seek global Internet censorship rules (U.N. strikes again)*** If you are outraged by the fact that Libya has been elected president of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, get this: Cuba and Iran -- among the world's worst dictatorships -- are playing a major role in drafting new U.N.-backed rules on the worldwide use of the Internet.

Not surprisingly, these repressive regimes are proposing rules that, if adopted by an upcoming U.N. Summit on the Information Society, would not only allow but encourage widespread censorship of the Internet, as well as growing state controls of TV and radio stations.

The World Summit on the Information Society, scheduled for December in Geneva, is organized by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the International Telecommunication Union, another U.N. affiliate.

WRITTEN BY CUBA?

UNESCO, you may remember, is the organization whose campaign for a ''New World Information Order'' -- with greater state controls -- led the United States to withdraw from that group 18 years ago. The U.S. government is scheduled to rejoin the organization this year.

When I heard about the proposals to regulate the Internet, I went into the summit's website, www.itu.int/wsis/, and read key portions of the draft declaration that is scheduled to be adopted in December. It contains alarming proposals.***

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